Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri expects to see a reaction against Atalanta and insists the Bianconeri played a ‘good first half’ against Chelsea.
The Bianconeri return to the pitch tomorrow at 17.00 UK time. They host fourth-placed Atalanta at the Allianz Stadium with La Dea sitting four points above them in the standings.
“Atalanta have been doing extraordinary work for many years, tomorrow’s game is between two teams in the race for the top four,” Allegri said at a press conference.
Juventus suffered a 4-0 defeat against Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday and Allegri expects a reaction from his players.
“We are sorry for the defeat in London, we are Juventus and it’s never good to make such a bad impression,” the coach continued.
“However, we had won the most important game in Turin.
“The team played a good first half in London, the game was balanced until minute 55. Perhaps we played a better first half than the reverse fixture in Turin, but we melted after their second goal.
“Tomorrow is an important match, but not decisive, we have an important month ahead, the next six games are crucial,” Allegri continued.
“Atalanta are a physical team, they score many goals, but they concede a lot too. We need a good game in attack and defence. We need to be clinical.
“Chiellini and Bernardeschi trained with the team yesterday, Ramsey is not available and De Sciglio returns on Tuesday. We are in good shape, ready to put in a great performance.”
Allegri insisted that he won’t swap to a three-man defence and added that Paulo Dybala could start the match.
The Argentinean forward missed Juventus’ trip to Rome against Lazio last week and came on as a substitute at Stamford Bridge.
“The problem is that we didn’t make good results against the smaller clubs. Tomorrow is an important game, but we need balance and a different approach, we are motivated. The lads were a bit sad after the defeat in London, but yesterday they trained really well,” Allegri added.
“We need to follow a general path to improve the single players and the team. We can’t look at the past, we need to get to March in good shape as a new season will begin at that point.
“It was impossible to think Juventus could win for 20 years in a row, it’s a balanced league, there have been changes and everyone hoped to do better. I share my views with the club and we know where we have to get.”
Gotta say, Alegri always talks sense in press conferences. A new season can kind of begin in March if the team has Chiesa and dybala fit and playing well, plus 1 or 2 new signings. Need to look for improvements in team work, and get the dead wood out of the team
I think Allegri talks a load of rubbish saying that they don’t usually do we’ll against small teams Cheksea are not a small team and they got absolutely hammered saying that they had a good first half they were outplayed throughout even fortunate to win in Turin
Allegri us a dinasour and I hope Gasoerini shows him up
He’s not wrong.
The game on Matchfay 2 was more important. By the time Matchday 5 came along both were already qualified.
Would have preferred to finish in 1st to avoid a team that is weaker on paper but it’s not the end of the world.
The Atalanta match is definitely more important.
At least i don’t have to hear Max say dumb things like “Management should have prepared better” OR “Who do i call on Barella who came from Cagliari” OR “If I tell you my plan B it will no longer be a secret” because if he does that I will personally give him the boot with Steel Toed boots ! Hopefully he talked with Cherubini to say get rid of Ramsey and Rabiot and Alex Sandro and sell Bentancur and Kukusevski
Juventus DID NOT have a good first half against Chelsea. They parked the bus… that concedes the initiative to the opponent and shows that you’re playing with fear. They were fortunate not to be scored on… that’s all.
I wouldn’t say they had a particularly good first half, but in the 30 or so min’s that I saw, it was fairly even + balanced. Chelsea had a far more proactive attitude, pace and approach, which made Juve struggle to make even simple passes, but Chelsea were almost as poor in terms of quality, especially in the final 3rd + up until the 2nd goal. Juve’s attitude did seem to alter somewhat, but I’d say it was after the first goal. I could tell so I switched over to the Atalanta match after about the 55 min mark. It was like they pressed the “stuff-it” button. But I can’t even say’s I blame them too much. They were already through + it must be difficult to alway’s stay “switched-on” with the amount of games that they have to play. That’s where a big squad come’s in handy I suppose? Still, if they’d shown as much fight + passion to stay in the game as they did when arguing with the ref on the 1st goal, then thing’s may not have gotten so bad. They did rally a bit + were starting to get in to the odd good position near Chelsea’s goal, but they don’t seem to have much up top atm. Atalanta will probably present another high octane, high-press opponent so it’ll be interesting to see how they do. Lazio play in a similar way too, but had literally nothing up front to trouble Juve’s defence with Ciro out + Juve only won that because of a couple of penalties. They deservedly won that match though. It seem’s to me that Max is still tinkering to try + find his most effective players + formation.
The game was not important considering we are going to play against Atalanta. I was happy with the result because It sent a strong signal to Juve boards that Bentancur and Rabiot are totally hopeless. Therefore, they must act quickly to find a good centrocampista and attacante in winter transfer.
Juve think they can do Lazio against Chelsea. Relying on luck in all match, not quality. And if you think we will win against Atalanta, you are dead wrong. I really hope we’ll finish at 8 or 10 this season.